There is a French term I love: esprit de l’escalier. It translates literally as “wit of the stairs,” and means roughly “the concise and clever retort that occurs to you too late, as you are on the stairs and leaving the scene.” I was sad to hear it is rarely used any more in French,…
Consumerism often confuses me. Statistically speaking, I am apparently taller than average for US women and (depending on what charts you use) either average or above average height for US men. I also mass more than the average woman, though I’ve not checked my weight in comparison to US men — that has the potential…
Our old apple tree has a few blossoms on it! They look like lovely pinkish froth, almost, despite there being only a handful of them. I hope next year the tree has more blossoms — I remember the apple trees we had in Texas nearly exploded with blossoms each year. To my knowledge we’ve also…
I am very sad to report that the Women’s Spirituality program at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology is being closed down. Apparently shortly after I graduated, the much-beloved president died, though this was not a surprise. A new president was selected, apparently without enough searching into his background… because — and here I condense and…
It is astonishingly easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that constantly needs doing in a new house! That list is never-ending, dammit. So I’m working just as hard to make sure I take time out for me as well… though I think I need to make sure I’m taking more time…
I think today I’m going to do a bit more venting on my dissertation blues… and then tomorrow talk about what I think might fix things a little. We’ll see how it goes. So at CIIS there’s something called the “Principles of Community.” They’re basically a list of suggestions to keep in mind when talking…
This is just going to be various fun/silly things in my life currently — sometimes I need to simply not think about dissertation stuff. So! For a celebratory late Valentine’s with friends, I decided we should have the traditional Valentine’s Day pizza — because Hawaiian pizza is totes what St. Valentine celebrated with, amiright? Also,…
We live in an interesting area of the city. Taking the main road to the highway, we pass through an economically depressed area. There are some… curious differences there from what I’ve lived in previously. For example, there are an astonishing number of churches! Just glancing at google maps, within 10 miles of me I…
Okay, time for more venting and dissertation blues. Haul out the tiny violins, please, and also everyone get ready to sing along with Arethra Franklin singing her wonderful “Respect”… Whew! Always love good, passionate music. So, now that we all feel better for that, let me get into my grumpy pants again. This log is…
Time for another 15 minutes (minimum) of writing, so I start getting back into the habit of doing so… The 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions is meeting in Salt Lake City, UT this upcoming October 15th through 19th. One of my sister scholars suggested several of us get together to present a panel there,…